This series of drawings examines the gulf that appears to be increasing between our individual sense of self in the world and the potential loss of it within the scope of massive population shifts and societal demands. The drawings reference flat spatial planes demarcated by circular radar-like markings and geometric fields. They are accentuated with lineal outlines of aircraft, building or ships that are also demarcated in their own space often by the use of simple line and arrows. I am intrigued with scientific and mechanical illustration for their cold clarity of information giving and it is this pragmatic element I exploit as a substructure in my compositions. The mechanical line countered against references to representational images provides a powerful graphic counter-balance that carries the potential information of so much. They are macroscopic in perspective; yet function on various levels, either through obscure combinations of images or as experimental diagrams. The illustrative quality is reworked throughout the drawing process to transform its function beyond the basic instructional purpose.

Central, but not solely, in my work are references to flight and the sublime air navigation-tracking infrastructure embedded into our global community: one that shares a unique set of universal protocols. It is an ordered system that sustains little room for disorder, which is difficult in a world in flux. It is a complex framework we move within using modes of mass transportation that fulfill our need for connectivity or to provide an expeditious means to act upon our paranoia or our humanity. There is a heroic quality in this high technology, but we often take for granted the fragility of it and the sequencing of airspace movements on the shoulders of a select group of people and sophisticated computers. Thus, we have mass movements of people weaving quickly throughout a world of morphing stresses and tensions, be they in the physical atmosphere or across political and social boundaries. In my drawings, this reference is not literal, but provides a metaphorical template to cast a lens on a host of issues and philosophies in a unique fashion.

This work owes its beginnings to the multiple trans-Atlantic crossings I partook between Rotterdam, Toronto and Winnipeg, when living in Europe between 1997 and 2001. Within the confined world of the airport and aircraft I was fascinated with the orchestrated movement of people throughout their passage, which ultimately led to my researching of the systems that sustain it.

My drawings are mostly graphite on archival paper with additions of acrylic paints. This series is still in progress and the intent is for larger scale drawings constructed on multiple sheets of drawing paper. Keeping the medium simple is essential in sustaining the experimental nature of the work and I freely allow all aspects of the drawing process to remain unhidden and raw; from the erasure marks to the torn and stressed edges.